


In the Picture

by esteefee



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-04
Updated: 2011-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-14 10:25:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esteefee/pseuds/esteefee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Episode tag. A brush with death teaches Steve some home truths.<br/>Lots of spoilers for Ho'apono. (1x07).</p><p>Written for the <a href="http://kissemdanno.livejournal.com">kissemdanno</a> lj comm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Picture

McGarrett stalked right by him with a look that Danny couldn’t figure—there was way too much in that look to decipher in one second—and then he was past, and the HPD were already gently tugging Graham away from his daughter and leading him off to be booked by Kono and Chin, so Danny went after Steve, because the one thing he _could_ figure was there had been nothing good in that look. Nothing good at all.

“Yo, Commander, where’re you heading?” Danny yelled, but Steve didn’t slow down at all. “I’m only asking ‘cause you don’t even know where the car is.”

That did get a response, and Steve slowed enough to let Danny catch up and nudge him in the right direction.

“I stopped a jet with this baby today, did you know that?” Danny continued as they reached the car, “Of course you didn’t. We ended up playing chicken with a Lear jet, which is saying something and, hey, we rescued the little girl, did you happen to notice?”

“Yeah. You guys did real good today, Danno.” Steve’s voice was rough, and Danny gave him another once over, but there was no cracking the commando code. He did look a little sweaty, though, there was no hiding that. Sweaty, and drooping a little.

“We should get you back to the 5-0 so you can get dried off. You smell...briney.”

That got him an amused look. “Well, I was swimming in the _ocean_ , smart guy.”

“So, there you go.” Danny waved, a little relieved for some reason. “In the chariot, princess.”

Steve rolled his eyes, but got in, and on the way back to HQ Danny told him all about Irina’s journal and tracking down that slime-bucket, Yegor. Steve just sat there straight up with his pack on his lap instead of sprawled out with his ridiculously long leg threatening the stick shift like it usually did. Every so often he'd shoot a glance over at Danny and then look away again, the knot in his jaw bulging like he was storing nuts for winter. Danny just ignored him and continued his riveting tale.

“…and then I pulled a one-eighty and, I swear, the jet stopped nose-to-nose with me, like six inches away, and we hauled the bastard out, and Lily went right into Kono’s arms instead of off to Moscow with that son of a bitch.”

“Jesus. He was going to take her out of country. Graham never would have gotten her back.” Steve sounded distracted. “You guys did real good.”

“Yeah. Funny, but you said that already.” Danny pulled up into the parking spot behind HQ. “What’s with you, man? You’re wound up tighter than my Aunt Tilly on pension day.”

“Seriously. You have an Aunt Tilly.” Steve grabbed his pack and got out of the car before Danny could respond, heading toward the doors of the building in that same tin soldier stride from the pier, like he was marching to his execution or something. By the time Danny caught up with him, Steve was already on the phone talking to the governor’s aide, so Danny made a fresh pot of coffee, grabbed a cup, and then planted himself in the chair in front of Steve’s desk.

“On my mom’s side,” Danny said, putting down the cup as Steve hung up the phone. “Aunt Tilly was the one who came over with the glazed hams and the awful fruitcake. Then Aunt Judy would get all pissed and very pointedly light the menorah even if it was a couple of weeks too late.”

“Sounds like good times.” Steve picked up the phone again, then dropped it back in the cradle and sat down. “I need a new phone.” He was rubbing his palms together nervously.

“Oh yeah? What happened to yours? I happened to notice you hung up a little abruptly back on the ship. I was deeply, deeply hurt.”

“Yeah, well. Graham tossed my phone over the side.”

“That explains the sudden loss of contact.” Danny tried to stare him down, but Steve wasn’t having it, his eyes flickering over to the door and then to the walls as if black ops were going to come crashing through the windows at any second. “Hey. Hey, front and center.” Danny clapped his hands.

“What?” Steve’s eyes snapped to.

Danny tilted his head. “You know, that’s like your third phone in a month to get drowned. Maybe Apple can build you a special cover or something. The iCondom.”

Steve grimaced but didn’t laugh, just stared at Danny hard, as if he were trying to read his mind or something. “I really messed up,” he said after way too long.

Danny sighed. Here it was, finally. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I thought I could get through to him,” Steve’s voice was strained, tight, “but I was wrong. He just wasn’t listening, or I wasn’t saying the right things. I was off-balance from the get-go. And then he got the drop on me, and he really, _really_ didn’t like the idea his wife had lied to him, and he had me on my knees—”

There was a warning thump in Danny’s chest, like something scared was trying to bang its way out. “And?”

Steve looked down at his desk. “I thought it was over, man. I really thought it was over. If the SWAT team hadn’t moved in...I was on my knees, and he was behind me, and he wasn’t _listening_. There was nothing I could do. I had no move.” Steve glanced up. “Danny, I swear to God he was getting ready to shoot me in the back of the head.”

The echo of fear on McGarrett’s face was a little disconcerting, because he was the kind of guy who gleefully jumped into shoot-outs swinging from a goddamned chain. What was more, Danny’s own gut did a nose-dive, because he could suddenly see it: coming onto the ship to do clean-up after the SWAT team, and finding Steve _dead_. No more Steve McGarrett. Just a body lying facedown on the deck with the back of his skull a bloody mess—

“But he didn’t. He _didn’t_ , and here you are—” Danny said, trying to calm them both down, but Steve butted in.

“That’s not it. Okay? I’m used to—shit, all the time, all the damned time, I’ve been there, okay? But I was so—Jesus, from the beginning, you weren’t _there_ except on the phone, and I was off my game the whole way—”

Christ, Steve McGarrett was _babbling_.

“—and all I could think was, what do I got? My life is supposed to flash before my eyes, right? And all that’s flashing is a house full of ghosts and a sister that won’t talk to me, and all I really wanted was—”

Danny could not take it. He could not take seeing Steve looking broken like that. Steeling himself not to give away too much, Danny pushed out of his chair and started to come around the desk, but heard the sounds of Kono and Chin coming back up from booking, so took a quick detour to close the door of Steve’s office before approaching him where he was hunkered over his desktop, his head in his hands.

“Hey. Hey, man, don’t. Look, see, you want to know pathetic? Pathetic is a guy who moves out of the contiguous United States just to follow his daughter so he can see her a grand total of four hundred hours a year. For that he lives in a crappy, shit-hole apartment and tries to sleep in a fold-out bed while he listens to the mice crawling in the walls and his neighbors doing the hanky-panky to the romantic tunes of Taylor Swift, and then hauls himself into work every day where he almost gets himself killed by his lunatic partner who has a terrible sense of self-preservation, thank you very much.” Danny took a deep breath and put a hand on Steve’s arm. “So, you see, you think you got it bad?”

Steve gave a raspy chuckle and lifted his head to look right at him. “Yeah. I got it bad. That’s the problem.”

Danny felt his face go slack.

“Jesus, Danno. You don’t see how amazing that is? That you’d do all that for Grace? Because that’s something. You’re something.” Steve’s face went stern, his jaw tight. “I didn’t see anything good flashing, except you. I want _you_ in the picture. Get it?” He pushed himself up suddenly, almost knocking the chair over as he stood up to face Danny. 

“I’m not putting this out there so you need to say anything,” Steve said roughly. “It’s just...seriously. He was going to kill me, Danny. I had no move. You know? There was nothing I could do. So,” he raised his hands, palm up, “Now I did something.”

And wasn’t that just like Steve Fucking McGarrett, the hysteria still threatening to bubble up as giggles in Danny’s chest, because it would be just that simple to Steve. Problem? Solution.

Bastard.

Danny realized he was breathing a little too hard, a tight flush heating his neck and cheeks, and Steve’s expression had changed from resolution to concern and nervousness, which was gratifying, if a little too little, too late.

“You are such a bastard,” Danny said, finally. “Really. I could kill you myself, if that wouldn’t be in poor taste, considering.”

“What—why?” Steve was starting to sound pissed.

“Because you beat me to it.” And Danny took a step forward, pushed right into Steve’s space, and leaned in to kiss him.

He managed one sweet, dry brush and caught his lip between Steve’s for a moment before Steve pulled back, sucking in his breath on a faint gasp.

“Whoa, wait—what?”

“Ha! I knew it.” Danny’s heart was pounding, but he poked a finger into Steve’s chest. “You didn’t think I was going to be into it, did you? You were just going to put it out there and then back away like a big...ugly _tree sloth_ or something.”

“Tree sloth.”

“Something big and slow and furry and totally, utterly _clueless_ , yeah.”

Steve folded his arms. “I’m much better-looking than a tree sloth.”

“Oh, you think so, do you? Who’s been telling you that?”

Steve scratched his jaw, a relieved smile now twitching his lips. “I kiss better than one, too.”

“Oh, yeah? Prove it.”

Leaning one hip against his desk, Steve tugged Danny closer and tilted his head, and then, man, he _took_ Danny’s mouth right over, lips covering his and tongue sliding in to tangle and slip and urge all of Danny’s blood to rush southward.

“Fuck,” Danny mumbled around Steve’s tongue.

“Mmm,” Steve murmured back, kissing and kissing against his lips and then against his jaw when Danny turned his head to just fucking _breathe_ for a second. Danny almost didn’t register the sound of footsteps approaching the door to Steve’s office, but he did just in time and pulled himself out of Steve’s arms to take two steps to the side, and by the time three knocks sounded and the door opened, he was leaning with his back to the desk and a police journal upside-down in his hands.

He quickly righted it as Kono said, “Hey, boss, Chin is just finishing up the paperwork on Yegor. You guys wanna go grab a beer?”

“Nah, thanks. I’m beat. But good job today, Kono.”

Danny cleared his throat and turned. “I have a call with Gracie tonight. But thanks.”

Kono shook her head. “You guys are getting so _old_. See you tomorrow.” She shut the door behind her.

“We’ll bring ‘em malasadas tomorrow; make it up to ‘em,” Steve said, grabbing Danny’s wrist. “C’mon, we’re going to my place.”

“Whatever you say, old man.”

“Hey, you’re the one with the trick knee.” Steve turned off the light and bent down to grab his pack, giving Danny the opportunity to get two handfuls of Navy ass.

“Hey!” Steve spun around and gripped him around the waist.

“I guess you’ve still got good reflexes.” Danny grinned at him.

Steve shook his head and gave him another kiss, lush and soft and way, _way_ too short. “What am I gonna do with you, huh?”

“You mean, now you got me?”

“Do I?” Steve grinned. “I’m thinking I accomplished a hell of a lot today, then.”

Danny frowned. “Oh, the night has only just begun, my friend. You better believe it. Gird your loins. Saddle-up. Rack ‘em and pack ‘em or whatever you Army guys like to say—”

“ _Navy_ , Danny. Navy. I’m a sailor, not a grunt.” Steve pushed him out the door, and they started down the hallway.

“Yeah, yeah, two if by sea.”

Steve’s answer was a bump and a smile.

 

_End._

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Inspired by the fact the line "(You're gonna keep my soul)...it was yours to have long ago." is overlaying Steve _looking at Danny_ at the end of Ho'apono while the music swells, which either means they're screwing with us, or they're screwing with us, I'm not sure which.  
> 
> 
> The giant tree sloth  
> [](http://pics.livejournal.com/esteefee/pic/0003we9c/)  
> 


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